


Fear

by shadowtraveled (meteorfest)



Series: Shadows on the Water [4]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-07
Updated: 2013-07-07
Packaged: 2017-12-17 23:41:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/873251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meteorfest/pseuds/shadowtraveled
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone had something to fear.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fear

Nico didn't fear much. There were so few things that could shake a son of Hades. All those little fears that children had, of the dark, of thunder, of spiders or snakes, none of those frightened him. Normal demigod fears, tied to an aspect of their godly parent - spiders, heights, drowning - didn't so much as faze Nico. He’d heard others call him inhuman, for his lack of fear, but what they didn't know was that no one was truly fearless.

Everyone had something to fear.

Tartarus had taught Nico that. Monsters and Titans, figures from mythology that had been cast into the deepest depths of the Underworld, had been hard trials to get through, but it was the air around him, near toxic fumes that incite hallucinations, what had finally gotten to him. The mists of Tartarus showed him the one fear that Nico hid so well from the world.

His fear of loss.

He’d seen visions of his sisters; Bianca’s death replaying before him as they had in the nightmares he’d seen when he was ten and Hazel captured and tortured, her blood spilled at the foot of Mount Olympus. Visions of his friends, Annabeth, Rachel, Tyson, Grover, and Frank, killed by Gaea’s forces, along with the rest of Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter both. 

But worst of all, Tartarus showed him the loss of Percy Jackson. Seeing Percy beaten, cut, bled out slowly, and finally killed when there was barely any life left in him, that was what had broken Nico. It had him screaming, hands buried in his hair, sword falling to the black ground. His heart raced, pounding hard against his chest to the point where it was painful. 

The love he’d harbored for Percy for the last couple of years, showing it only in the way he did everything he could to protect the son of Poseidon, was his purpose. He’d shown Percy how to gain invincibility so he could win, so he wouldn't be lost. He’d told Hazel that she could trust Percy, knowing that she would be his friend and help him where Nico couldn't. He’d gone in search of the Doors of Death to help give Percy the advantage that he and the rest of the prophecized seven would need.

It was also his weakness. If Percy was in danger, Nico would do everything in his power to help him. This nightmarish vision, seeing Percy’s death, struck the son of Hades so hard that it was easy for Gaea’s minions to capture him, drawn by his screams. 

Percy!


End file.
